Gazelam wrote:From what I understand, there was a place the prophets in the Book of Mormon kept all of the records at. This is where Mormon spent his time in condensing the records into what we have in our Book of Mormon. I would suppose this place to be hidden, and it would be where Moroni took the Sword of Laban and the Liahona to.
I do not know the reference point, but I recall one of the witnesses stating that they saw the place in a vision, and they recall looking to the side and being able to see the edge of the vision, as in seeing the forest floor pick up near the edge of the vision where they were in a room with a stone floor/ floor of a cave. The room was filled with records, and there was a table with the Sword of Laban on it.
Here is what Brigham Young said about the room that is hidden in the Hill Cumorah in NY:
"When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall; but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: "This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ." I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdrey, but others who were familiar with it, and who understood it just as well as we understand coming to this meeting, enjoying the day, and by and by we separate and go away, forgetting most of what is said, but remembering some things. So is it with other circumstances in life. I relate this to you, and I want you to understand it. I take this liberty of referring to those things so that they will not be forgotten and lost. Carlos Smith was a young man of as much veracity as any young man we had, and he was a witness to these things. Samuel Smith saw some things, Hyrum saw a good many things, but Joseph was the leader. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 19, June 17, 1877)
And Orson Pratt had this to say:
"After having made this abridgment he committed it into the hands of his son Moroni, knowing that his nation would be destroyed, and that Moroni, according to the revelations God had given him, would be spared to keep the records, and to behold the downfall of his nation Mormon hid the records from which he made this abridgment in a hill, called the hill Cumorah, that being its ancient name, and this hill was about three miles from where this young man resided, in the town of Manchester, Ontario County, State of New York. There all the records were deposited, and according to the Book of Mormon they must have been very numerous indeed. The history of the ancient inhabitants of this land was kept by their kings, and the records became very voluminous; and they were all deposited by the Prophet Mormon in that hill; but the abridgment from which the Book of Mormon was taken was given into the hands of his son Moroni, to finish out the record." (Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, Volume 15, September 22, 1872)
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